EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW – Barbara Hendricks, a voice from the heart

How did your vocation as a singer come about?
It’s a long story… I was born with a gift, a talent. I’ve always loved to sing. When I was a child, I used to sing in the church where my father was pastor. I sang a lot at school too. But later I chose to study mathematics and science at university. I had the opportunity to take part in a singing course. I entered my first competition and won. People around me urged me to continue. I then went on a nine-week training course to study classical music, chamber music and recital.

How did you feel then?
It was an amazing, unknown world, but I was no stranger to it. I really didn’t know anything about music. I was just 20, totally ignorant and naive. And at the same time, I loved the feeling of singing, of sharing music, without any pressure or ambition. I went off to study at the Juilliard School in New York. That’s when I met my destiny.

What models have inspired your artistic work?
One person, Jennie Tourel, my voice teacher for four years at the Juilliard School. As a pastor’s daughter, it troubled me greatly to learn a profession that gave me so much pleasure. To become like my teacher, to be at the service of music, seemed to me to be something very noble. Without this example, I couldn’t have imagined pursuing such a career.

What qualities are required to achieve a level and career like yours?
Every artist is different. What I see in common between all of them is passion, the desire to transmit something greater than oneself. The message isn’t mine, I’m just the instrument that plays…

Do you have a favorite repertoire? A favorite composer?
Yes, there’s one composer who’s always followed me. It’s Mozart. For a very long time, not a single year went by without my singing Mozart. His music is divine, because it’s even greater than Mozart himself.

What else can you dream of when you’ve had a career like yours?
Since 1994, I’ve added jazz and blues* to my repertoire. When I was a child, my father considered blues to be the devil’s music. I’m educating myself today! I’m very curious, I like to learn new things. Even if today I spend a lot of time in my vegetable garden, with my grandson…

Why do you live on the Riviera?
I’ve lived here for 30 years. This is where my children grew up. It’s impossible to explain to someone the beauty of the Riviera, the majesty of the mountains falling into the water. How lucky we are! And then there’s the kindness of my neighbors. Here, people let me be myself. I’ve never needed a bodyguard. I’ve always felt at home here, welcomed and loved.

Do you enjoy watchmaking?
I’m fascinated by the work of watchmakers. It’s all so tiny… We need watchmaking, but I also really enjoy not knowing what time it is, forgetting about it to do things in the time they need to be done. In my life, I’ve had the luxury of being able to take the time I needed to become who I am.

*Blues everywhere I go”, Barbara Hendricks & her blues band, Arte Verum, October 2015